the Fourth Week of Advent
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Hebrew Names Version
2 Samuel 24
1 Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Yisra'el, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Yisra'el and Yehudah. 2 The king said to Yo'av the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now back and forth through all the tribes of Yisra'el, from Dan even to Be'er-Sheva, and number you the people, that I may know the sum of the people. 3 Yo'av said to the king, Now the LORD your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king delight in this thing? 4 Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Yo'av, and against the captains of the host. Yo'av and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Yisra'el. 5 They passed over the Yarden, and encamped in `Aro`er, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Ya`zer: 6 then they came to Gil`ad, and to the land of Tachtim-Hodshi; and they came to Dan-Ya`an, and round about to Tzidon, 7 and came to the stronghold of Tzor, and to all the cities of the Hivvi, and of the Kana`anim; and they went out to the south of Yehudah, at Be'er-Sheva. 8 So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Yerushalayim at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Yo'av gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Yisra'el eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Yehudah were five hundred thousand men.
10 David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, the LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly. 11 When David rose up in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 12 Go and speak to David, Thus says the LORD, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you. 13 So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? now advise you, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me. 14 David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man. 15 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Yisra'el from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Be'er-Sheva seventy thousand men. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Yerushalayim to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay your hand. The angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Aravna the Yevusi. 17 David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house.
18 Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Aravna the Yevusi.
19 David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded.
20 Aravna looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Aravna went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
21 Aravna said, Why is my lord the king come to his servant? David said, To buy the threshing floor of you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
22 Aravna said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him: behold, the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood:
23 all this, king, does Aravna give to the king. Aravna said to the king, the LORD your God accept you.
24 The king said to Aravna, No; but I will most assuredly buy it of you at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25 David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Yisra'el.
